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Topic: Whats everyone reading? (Read 415022 times)

Trust me I will. Everything about it says I should love it so even if I don't get it this time I'll be keeping them to try again at a later day. I'm hardwired to love this I reckon... its genuinely baffling.

As for the rest of your post YES Princess Bride is one of my favourite books as well as my favourite* film.

I just finished reading the mega collection books OZ, Necropolis, The Dead man, Democracy now, Total War, America and Brothers of the blood (in that order).

I quite like how these stories knits together the democracy and clone story lines through the shift in his idea of blood and duty. From living up to what he was created for, to start try to care more for those who considers him family. Both Vienna and America.

His regrets becomes very real during these books, which I think makes the epics (that followed) Origins, ToD and DoC very interesting to read.

Just finished Metro 2033, first in a trilogy of post-apocalyptic Russian based sci-fi/horror novels. As a big fan of the two Metro games I was looking forward to dipping into the books. First book is pretty good, drags slightly about 2/3rds of the way in but overall I enjoyed it.

Savage Highway - post-apocalyptic done-in-one Eurocomic.The art is heavily influenced by manga, but with a western finish, so basically we're talking the Mark Bagley school here. The writing feels pretty slight and doesn't cover any new ground for the genre to the point its twist ending has been cribbed from... well, possibly one of the moist famous post-apocalyptic movies ever. All I could think of when reading it was that I'd hate to be an editor for something like FutureQuake if someone sends a script in where a bloke on a savage planet discovers it was Earth all along or finds out that he himself is also a ghost as I'd be stuck wondering how in the heck I even broach the subject diplomatically with the writer before finally just chickening out and letting it go to press as is. I can picture some version of this scenario playing out behind the scenes of Savage Highway, because apart from the cribbed ending, the actual storytelling in the rest of the book seems to have been given a free pass, as it's pretty ephemeral and reliant on logical leaps to keep characters running from one chase or action scene to another in the vein of trashy 1980s STV sci-fi romps, and to top it off there's a leftfield infodump in the final act that fleshes out the nature of the catastrophe that befell Earth, but adds not a single thing to the story.Pretty bad, if I'm honest, but I do so love the Eurocomic format and post-apocalyptia so I couldn't help myself - especially not after seeing the good reviews this got.

A chance perusal of a thread on here has led to a full-blown return bite by the Fighting Fantasy bug. After a hunt through my parent's house failed to turn up my old copies (the hunt will continue), Ebay comes up trumps with a £15 boxset of the first 10 (original) Wizard editions - and from what I can tell, they've never even been read!

And so where better to start than the fabled Warlock of Firetop Mountain? Never played this one back in the day but it's a great re-introduction. A classic dungeon crawl with monsters, traps and puzzles aplenty. The hours flew by - it's as if I was never away! A starting Skill of 11 and Stamina of 20, plus some reliably great dice rolls (thanks Dice Gods!) saw me slicing through Zagor's hordes like a hot knife through butter, laden down by gold and loot. A lesson in hubris was needed, and this came in the form of the Maze of Zagor. This labryinth had me all but tearing my hair out for the next few hours, so I took a break for dinner and came back to it fresh.This seemed to have done the trick, and I was out! A dragon on the other side proved the first foe to give me any serious challenge, but he soon fell to my blade like many before him. And then I was stood before Zagor himself. A handy Invisibility potion helped me make short work of him, and I stepped happily over his corpse to claim the victor's spoils... except that I only had two of the three keys I apparently need to open his treasure chest - despite being expressly told in the village that the chest had two locks. Bloody peasants. It's a somewhat ignominious end for my adventure, then, but I still made out like a bandit in the dungeon, so I'm claiming bragging rights in the tavern tonight...

And so where better to start than the fabled Warlock of Firetop Mountain? Never played this one back in the day but it's a great re-introduction. A classic dungeon crawl with monsters, traps and puzzles aplenty. The hours flew by - it's as if I was never away! A starting Skill of 11 and Stamina of 20, plus some reliably great dice rolls (thanks Dice Gods!) saw me slicing through Zagor's hordes like a hot knife through butter, laden down by gold and loot. A lesson in hubris was needed, and this came in the form of the Maze of Zagor. This labryinth had me all but tearing my hair out for the next few hours, so I took a break for dinner and came back to it fresh.

I like how it has a backstory which the book doesn't go in to - that the area next to the river was flooded, killing all the people working there (which is why you suddenly come across undead every second room) and that once it was deserted a tribe of goblinoids set up shop (who you encounter on the way to the underground river).

An impulse buy of Eberron-Infestations comic-a really nice read but only two issues. basically Mythos style beastie invades a D&D land. Fun characters but based I think on Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson. I enjoyed it though.

Logged

The Justice department has a good re-education programme-it's called five to ten in the cubes.

Today however I finished reading Barefoot Gen on the bus jounrey to work.

Keiji Nakazawa's autobiographical tale of a family living in Hiroshima in the the summer of 1945 is one of the most affecting things I've ever read. Its just so powerful. Gen a school child and his family's struggles to cope with war time shortages, hardline authorities and indoctrinated peers that surround them is so compelling. Gen is taught valuable lessons in pacifism and bravery from his anti-war father leaving the family we grow to care about so much become ostrisied by their neighbours due to Gen's father's vocal resistance to the war effort. The family, for all their father's abuse are wonderful, honestly presented characters.

The sheer courage displayed by the family to stick to their views despite how hard its made for them is inspiring. Especially as the reader knows their fortitude will be futile in the face of what will come. All this is presented all the more potentantly with the simple, almost childlike art, reflecting the innocence of Gen in this brutal world, which just works so well.

So yeah today I cried on the bus after reading a comic on the way to work.

They should make children read this book in schools.

They should make every flaggin' 'USA, USA, USA' American read this before they call for more inward looking 'Make America Great'

They should make everyone British citizen tricked into believing the isolationism of Brexit is a good thing read this.

They should make ever self absorbed white middle class male, obsessing over his small problems as he travels on the way to work read this.

So I'd say you're just put the back of Mechanics, and Palomar hasn't really started yet? The adolescent stylings of the former don't move me the way they once did, but that's ok because Death of Speedy is just around the corner, and no one can resist... That?

Well chaps I returned to this early than I planned as they were stirring down at me from my reading shelf and while I'm still not sold on Jamie - though 'Locas' is a definate step in the right direction. 'Bert's 'An American in Palomar' is the first thing I've loved in the series. Now this was fantastic...

Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang's Doctor 13: Architecture and MortalityGrant Morrison and several artists' Seven Soldiers of VictoryGrant Morrison and several artists' Final CrisisGrant Morrison and several artists' Multiversity Paul Dini and Eduardo Risso's Dark Night: A True Batman Story

Read like a big fantastic palette of spandex and strange concepts. I really like how each story's ramification toyed with the stories as well as me as a reader. Be it Doctor 13:s only constant being constant change or Seven Soldiers concept of 7 characters who together manages to defeat a threat without ever meeting each other or the lovely insanity of Multiversity.

I tried to make it so that the read would do without the big three as much as possible. While Final Crisis and Multiversity isn't without those (nor Dark Night, in a way), I think they mixed it up enough for things to feel different.

While I've read these before, I still managed to pick up some new things from them, to zest how I view and make sense of the world. Also being good zany fun and acton.